Monday, 24 November 2014

I was returning from Malham Tarn on Tuesday morning the scenic way - along Henside, to Sannet Hall, when the sun came out. (Next I would descend to Stainforth.) This picture is looking back from Sannet Hall towards Henside

The grass was vivid lime green - making for dramatic picutres

and so was the Klebsormidium (filamentous alga) splurging all over the wall.

You can see it can't you? On the right, and on the wooden post.

Klebsormidium grows on acid rocks and wood.

The stones in the wall just here are mostly made of Greywacke a 450 million year old Silurian rock (that I would call slate if I hadn't been told better) - that lies below the 350 Million year old carboniferous limestone.

(Digressing: (Greywacke is a grey sandstone (hence the name grey) with particles of sand of various sizes and also of clay in it. It is generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly sorted angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments or lithic fragmentsset in a compact, clay-fine matrix. The sea where it formed may have had turbidity currents and been moving to have such a mixture of particle sizes. I like this description here even if it was 1833)

Anyway, it is acid, and with the high rainfall we get round here, and it being a north facing side of the wall, the alga is doing really well. I suspect the mild October and November has allowed it to continue growing.

This alga has spread relatively recently in Britain - but I have never seen quite so much as on this wall.

It is increasing because of the background nitrogen oxides (and maybe ammonia) in the air, from intensive farming, cow muck, car exhaust etc.

The adjacent farm may have had a slight effect - but the alga extended a third of a mile or so to the south towards Stainforth (as far as the greywacke stones extended) so I think it is mainly here due to the exposed position of the wall. (Or it could also be as far as the much spreader was able to drive...) I just don't know.

The pollarded trees look dramatic too.

This was a bright yellow green lichen - but I don't think it was Rhizocarpon geographicum - more like a white lichen turned yellow green by an alga .. I must try and find out about this.Here is a link to a website about a prototype algal farm on a flyover over a motorway in Switzerland

Our local C of E priest was quite supportive.
He suggested putting about three pairs of leaflets in each of the local churches.
And with an extra 20 I might use at a house group, that would soon come to 100 copies..

2) Find out how much it would cost to get it printed locally..
I obtained quotes for printing from the local print shop. (250, 500 and 1000 ).. I could see that it was definitely much cheaper to have larger quantities made.
One quote was:
Costs for printing on 100gsm recycled 4/4
6pp Rollfold to DL

250 - £109.21
500 - £121.03
750 - £125.21
1000 - £130.74

12pp Parallel fold & Rollfold to DL (assuming I made an A3 leaflet folded into 6)

250 - £178.52
500 - £194.11
750 - £215.21
1000 - £221.74

prices subject to sight of the artwork.

Now I would need to persuade the national organisation Green Christian / CEL that they would like to pay to have them printed - (rather than me just running off a few copies on my expensive printer, and putting the file online to make it available for other people to print themselves.)

I emailed the CEL Secretary.

"Bring some copies to the next planning meeting" said the secretary

"But they must be in the CEL House style - At the moment that is A4 folded rather than tryptych.
And a tryptych would still need to conform to margins, spacing, headings, fonts and size of print etc.. "

HOUSE style?

I then remembered that when CEL got its new logo 6 years ago we were sent templates for leaflets.
Ahh - I should have used those all along -

But maybe not.

I have had chance to learn and be creative, and I have used the correct font already, and the red stripes at the top and bottom of the page.

I have now made leaflets
1. Using the CEL housestyle (but now in colour) - A5 (A4 folded)
2. Triptych leaflets - similar to what I have already done - but with similar layout to the CEL Housestyle - tthe only main difference trying font size 10 and font size 11 instead of the house style font size 8.5
I still want the leaflets to be accessible to visually challenged people and to older children used to large print.

So the front of the 2 triptych leaflets still look something like this, and the A5 leaflets are similar but a bit wider.

The extra white space and extra spacing does make them look a lot better - as does the the much more restricted number of font sizes.
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Meanwhile - I read a blog post and was reminded about the problems caused by cattle- Nitrogen oxides , green house gases, and deforestation to grow soya to feed our cattle -
I added "Go more vegan" to point 10 on Leaflet 1's list of of ten top practical steps.)

10: Buy food that is "Wildlife friendly" and go more vegan.

SINCE Wednesday I stopped being an omnivore and started being "partly more vegan." (Though not totally)

I still need to
1) consider further how the leaflet can be used
2) try it out on some 14 year olds
3) Take it to the Green Christian Planning meeting

Leaflet part 5: - It gets divided into TWO leaflets

In Part 4 I decided to make the print bigger so that people can easily read it.

A very successful decision.

I'm so glad I made that decision - I mean, how can I go about with our "Disability and Needs Awareness project at church".. and then produce leaflets with writing that is too small for people to read?

But it meant that the bible quotes and quotes by religious leaders had been squeezed off the main leaflet and would have to go inside on a separate double sided single column insert.

However like Topsy, the leaflet continued growing.

as a result of:

making the quotes in bigger text,

including an extra column specifically promoting the Rainforest Fund,

and half a column explaining the benefits of CEL

I soon found I had a whole triptych insert, (or the option of putting both triptychs together and making an A3 sheet). It looked rather boring,

Having spent parts 1 to 4 learning how to make the first leaflet look so nice

(.. by make people aware they love it- wildife - so they then want to act, and then showing them how to act), I decided to rearranged the second leaflet so it would look similar.

"Put a red squirrel on it" said Althea.

And since I had a nice photo through the window at Kindrogan Field Centre of a red squirrel on the bird feeder, on the red squirrel went.

Here is the front of the two leaflets:

Whoops.. we seem to have slunk back to the word "Biodiversity" again. perhaps I should retitle leaflet 2 "Why does saving nature matter to Christians"..
(The word Biodiversity was only coined in 1986 by E.O. Wilson)

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Inside leaflet 1 I made my own doughnut chart (using Excel) showing the different causes of wildlife population losses (from the Living Planet Report).

Well that was an achievement in itself .. quite proud of myself.

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Leaflet 2 will probably only appeal to Christians.. but that is fine. No need to print as many.

All the quotes on the leaflet were from men, all except except one by Ruth. This especially applied to religious leaders.. What to do about that?

In the absence of any modern "high up" women religious leaders, I found a page of quotes by Kenyan activist and conservationist Wangari Maathai, and put in a quote by her - It may not have been the best, but it was one of the shortest. And found a nice photo of her on Wiki-Commons.

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I went Scottish Dancing in the Church Hall this evening and stuck up the two leaflets. One co-dancer looked at them and said "That's sad" - meaning the wildlife loss was sad .

But I didn't want him to go away feeling sad. Not unless it brings results.

The next stage?

1) Ask a few local religious leaders/people in charge of notice boards how they feel they could use the leaflet

2) Find out how much it would cost to get it printed locally..

3) Go over the leaflets again and consider, what would the 14 year old children I used to teach in Bradford make of these leaflets? Or the 13 year olds I taught in Sierra Leone? - perhaps I really do need a picture of a bee and some bee statistics... Or can I supplement my leaflet on the display board with biodiversity pictures made by other organisations?

Sunday, 2 November 2014

Jane Rushworth led us to Anley Hall, near Settle for our CCG 2014 Fungus Foray and with thirty people it was one of our best attended field events of the year.. The lawns of our local Nursing home, it turned out, are home for at least eleven species of Waxcaps- meaning they are of important conservation value.

On the front lawn was a fairy ring of Entelomas, and here you see us standing round the outside of this ring:

Crimson Waxcap - Hygrocybe punicea

We went back to St John's Church Hall and met after lunch and spread out our specimens

Jane got us to sort out the fungi in to groups

One member even found time for a quick water colour painting

Waxcaps. Only the Balckening Waxcap (Hygrocybe conica) is poisonous/non edible

A big thank you to:
Jane for leading the event
Archie MacAdam who was scheduled to co lead it, but was unavailable due to illness - but he checked several of our specimens
To several of the people in Archie's U3A class at Skipton who came and supported the event
To the Flowers of the Dales Booklet which publicised the event and brought in several extra people
To Anley Hall for allowing us to use their grounds.

It was a privilege to join a group from the Yorkshire Naturalists Union Bryophytes Section to part of Ingleton Glens on 1 Nov to make a third attempt in searching for a rare liverwort (very rare in the UK) not seen since 1966/67. - Great to be with people who know their mosses and liverworts!

Tom Blockeel reminded me that the "Atlas of British and Irish Byophytes" will be published later on this month.. and that there are only a few days left in which to buy it at the £20 reduced pre-publication price.

Ingleton Glens is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is two deeply cut wooded valleys, the upper part through slate, the lower part through limestone. The surrounding land use is pasture and quarry.

Come and see some of the bryophytes (and lichens) we found.

Amphidium mougeotii - Mougeot's Yoke-moss forms soft round mounds where there is base enrichment in the water draining over a rock.

Homalia trichomanoides Blunt Feather -moss

Sheets of Homalia and a few mounds of Amphidium

Scapania nemorea

Normandina pulchella - Whoops- that's a lichen not a moss!This is one that is easily recognnisable, like its name, is beautiful, and is on that needs clean air. .. But may be spreading since the SO2 pollution is now less than 30 years ago.Actually we did fins some in Ingleton churchyard (a mile away) earlier this year

Not sure what this lichen is. Where this lichen grows the moss does not grow. It has a black margin round the prothallus. Are the black dots cephalodia, parasitic lichens or reproductive bodies?(cephalodia are parts of a lichen that have blue-green algae in them instead of normal green aglae. Blue-greens can fix atmospheric nitrogen to make their own "fertilizer"I've put this here in the hope that a lichen friend will be able to help me.

The Normandina is on the moss bottom left.

This mound of Scapania does not have the brown gemmae so is not S nemorea. It is S gracile

S gracile

A liverwort, quite a rare on I.. will write up its name once I have checked it under the microscope...I think it should be a darker green than this.

Same

Autumn colours

Group photo

On a rock face just in a field just outside the wood was this beautiful big Dog Lichen. There are at least 12 species of Dog Lichens in UK. This one is Peltigera leucophlebia. Bright green when wet, frilled at edges; dark wart like cephalodia which cannot easily be reomoved.

Add caption

Peltigera leucophlebia in foreground on left.

The light starts to dwindle at 3.30pm .. need to head for base soon. But what a warm mild day it has been for 1 November.

Campylopus atrovirens - looks dark, can look black. More of a mountain species

Aug-Sep 2018: £40 - Thanks to sale of £30 worth of cards form 3 Langcliffe people (total for 2018=£170)

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June-July 2018: £30 - Thanks to sale of cards at Wholesome Bee and Boxer and Hound (total for 2018=£130)

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April-May 2018: £70 including £30 from donation by Settle spinners, £23.50 from sale of cards to Ripon Group visitng St John's and sale of cards to others (total for 2018: £100

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Jan-March 2018:£30

(Total for 2018: £30.00)

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December: £235 made up of £191 at Coffee morning - £127 for Coffee and cakes, £64 for cards; plus £10.50 from Cards sold at Settle Spinners and £20 from one person buying cards and £23.50 from other cards - Total for 2017: £557:

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Sep-Nov 2017: £32.50 including £19.50 from Green Christian JIE Conference and £13 from Cards at Growing with Grace (Total-£312)

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June - Aug 2017: £72.50 including £68 from the talk on "Wildflower Walks around Settle" (Total for 2017: £279.50)

In Dec 2012 - so far - £137 :£65 from Rainforest Coffee morning at church. The following is all from cards: £25.5 from sale of cards at coffee morning, and £25 from cards near coffee morning; : £8 at Langcliffe Inst, £13 Growing with grace £10-50 Wholesome Bee, (Total for 2012 = £712)

In June 2012: £40 : from sale of cards:£18 from people from Scargill House on my wildflowers walk and £16 from Age UK people at haymeadow talk (Total for 2012 = £370)

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In May 2012: £74 : including from cards (£14 from sale of cards at Taitlands Tea room at Stainforth; £15 from CCG meeting at Lower Winskill; £20 from Flowers course at Malham Tarn Field Centre; £17 (Total for 2012 = £330)

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In April 2012: £26: from cards (£15 from A Rocha group at Scargill House (Total for 2012 = £256)

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In March 2012: £130: from cards including £75 from Christian Ecology Link Conference at Bristol and £35 donation from Settle Spinners and £20 from Cards in the foyer at St John's (Total for 2012 = £230)

In Dec 2011: £240 including £90from cards including £32.50 from Langcliffe Inst Christmas Sale, £11-00 at WI pantomine, £20 from people at Settle Christmas Day Lunch and £150 donation (Total for 2011 = £1,000)

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In Nov 2011: £50: From cards including £19.50 from Scottish Dancing (Total for 2011 = £760)

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In Oct 2011: £110: From cards including £45 from Worsley Church and £50 from Settle Mothers Union (Total for 2011 = £710)

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In Sept 2011: £30: From cards (Total for 2011 = £600)

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In August 2011: £20: From cards (Total for 2011 = £570)_________________________

In July 2011: £50: From £36 donation form Settle Spinners, (£6-00 cards from Settle Spinners and £8.00 cards from others (Total for 2011 = £550)_________________________

In June 2011: £85: From the profit from the Saltaire Ladies group who came for salad tea at the church hall - £29 plus the cards they bought - £16.50; The Flowers course at Malham Tarn bought £26 of cards. (Total for 2011 = £500)_________________________In April- May 2011: £55 - From My saving buying food on "Live for a £1-00 a day week": £10; Rest from cards including 1 person at Scottish dancing £15 and people at Plantlife day: £16.50 (Total for 2011 = £415)_________________________

In March 2011: £145 - Mostly from sale of cards including:- £50 from CEL conference, £25 from Horton History Society, £26 from WYSOCS; Also a £20 donation (Total for 2011 = £360)_________________________

In Feb 2011: £65 - all from sale of cards including:- £26 from Austwick Field Society and £25 from Settle Gardening Club (Total for 2011 = £215)_________________________

Starting again..in 2011: £150 in by 31 January 2011 including £109 from the Barn Dance and £26 from cards_________________________

£2600 (£600 in 2010) by Dec 31 2010 - Mostly from Greeting cards, but also £32.21 from Settle Spinners and some from a donation._________________________

£2420 (£420 in 2010) by Sept 20 2010 - From the St John's Coffee Morning in August (£106) . Also from the sale of Greetings Cards, including £28 worth from people on courses at Malham Tarn Field Centre - Acrylics, Grasses, Settle Carlisle Line and Staff)_________________________

£2250 (£250 in 2010) by June 30 2010 - Mostly from the sale of Greetings Cards, including £20 worth from people at "Folk at the Falcon" and £30 from one lady who came to the NISCU evening, and £20 donation from people who came on the Environment Sunday Walk._________________________

£2125 (£125 in 2010) by March 31 2010 - including £100 from sale of Greetings Cards and Calendars and another £25 from collection by Settle Spinning Club

_________________________Nov - December 31st 2009 - including sale of Christmas Cards and Calendars

(Total for 2009 = £567 )_________________________Sep-October 2009 - £60-00:- £52 donations at Day of Prayer on 4 Oct. £8-00 from energy meter and sale of cards

(Total for 2009 = £450)_________________________May-August 2009: £68 - £40 from cards from Choir from Dewsbury, £8-00 from profit on sale of tweezers and lenses, £10- from part of Burton in Lonsdale Ceilidh money, £8-00 sale of cards

(Total for 2009 = £47) _________________________£1433 by December 29th 2008 - including £70 from Settle WI£14 from selling Speaking Tips Booklets£70 from selling home-made Christmas cards_________________________£1279 by November 29th 2008- including £25 from a Langcliffe Singer Lady who is giving it to World Land Trust to a relation as a Christmas Present; £35 from Langcliffe Singers; and donations from a couple for receiving computing tuition_________________________£1172 by October 29th- 2008 including £50 made up from donations from 6 people who borrowed the Owl monitor, and an individual donation for £50 - Thanks._________________________£1050 by September 29th 2008 includingover £100 from the "Addingham Friendly Hour" minibus trip where we made them tea)_________________________£920 by July 29th -2008- includinga donation of £4 by a person borrowing an OWL meter - (for monitoring electricity usage)_________________________£883 by June 20th 2008- includinga donation of £100 for Cool Earth by Settle Line Dance Class at the Church Hall and £10 as the first donation online for Cool Earth, and two other donations._________________________£752 by May 20th 2008 includinga donation of £100 for World Land Trust by a family who donated half an acre of land (£25) for each of their four nephews and nieces, who received certificates._________________________£652 by April 19th 2008- includinga donation of £65 from the group who came for coffee_________________________£587 by April 14th 2008- including£160 for A Rocha Ghana£312 for World Land Trust (including £25 online donation and £30 from Scottish Country Dancing at the Hall£115 for Cool Earth_________________________£467 by April 5th 2008- including£110 for A Rocha Ghana£292 for World Land Trust (including £25 online donation and £30 from Scottish Country Dancing at the Hall£65 for Cool Earth_________________________

£392 by March 9th 2008- including£90 for A Rocha Ghana£237 for World Land Trust£65 for Cool Earth_________________________

£295 by February 9th 2008£80 for A Rocha Ghana and£215 for World Land Trust (which will buy 4 acres of forest.)